Contents

Background

When Stalin led the Union in Second World War, he utilized a fleet of submarines in an attempt to dominate the seas. Although the Soviet Union was forced to disarm after his defeat, Romanov realized that a fleet of new submarines would be vital for a new secret attack force to destroy Allied forces in the United States.

With this in mind, he commissioned a new force of submarines, under the direction of General Vladimir. This new force of submarines was even more potent than the first, capable of remaining permanently submerged, unless heavily damaged or detected by Allied forces.

In-game

The Typhoon is the first naval combat unit available to Soviet commanders, and requires only a naval yard to construct them. They are invisible while submerged and will only surface if they are under attack or a naval unit has come too close to them. Only boomers, destroyers, dolphins and giant squids can detect them while they are submerged. Typhoons are, in turn, also capable of detecting and firing on other submerged units. While the submarines themselves are invisible, the torpedoes are not, which allows an observant player to more or less guess the location of the submarines even if the player can't see the submarines.

Typhoon attack submarines can be intentionally surfaced by friendly fire as well. Typhoons also have no defense against aircraft and, unlike the Destroyer, cannot attack ground units.

Gallery

Behind the scenes

The Typhoon-class attack sub was actually a nuclear submarine in service in the real USSR, however, the real-life Typhoon was a missile submarine, not an attack submarine. They were some of the largest submarines ever built, with over 500 feet in length.

The in-game Typhoon bears a much closer resemblance to the real world Shchuka (Russian: Pike) nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Soviet Navy, including its characteristic teardrop shaped rear sonar housing. It is interesting to note that this discrepancy echoes a very common mix up between these two submarine classes; as the real-life missile submarine that was NATO-codenamed Typhoon (Project 941) went by the name of Akula in the Soviet Navy (Russian: Shark), whereas the Akula name was instead used in the West as a corresponding codename for the aforementioned Shchuka attack submarines (Project 971) that do resemble the in-game "Typhoon" in appearance and function.

Trivia

Oddly, the submarines can target enemy walls, even though it's impossible for them to do so as they cannot target land units and buildings.